In June 2003 Staff at DIY retail giant B&Q celebrated after hearing they would share a record £28 million bonus; all 35,000 members of staff in 320 stores received a pay-out of 9% of their salary by the end of the month.

But Tuesday it is a different story as B&Q announce store closures and job changes.

To be fair B&Q hit the skids some time ago and began closing stores and 'revamping' but today owners the Kingfisher group have announced 60 B&Q stores in UK and Ireland will close over the next two years.

It is not all bad news though as Kingfisher who also own Screwfix plan to open "60 new outlets under its Screwfix brand."

Crucially though B&Q will be downsizing its stores having decided smaller stores will be sufficient to meet customer demands.

It does have an online presence and presumably B&Q still has a good business footing there.

"Kingfisher also announced a 15.2% fall in pre-tax profit to £644m for 2014" reports BBC News.

The heady days of fabulous staff bonus schemes must surely be history or on temporary hold?

Kingfisher representatives claim the effect of these changes on jobs will be 'neutral' as job roles are shuffled rather than axed. Will job moves include protected work contracts or will workers face reduced hours, less pay or even zero-hour contracts?

Monday B&Q ditched expansion plans for France when Kingfisher abandoned plans to purchase French DIY chain Mr Bricolage for €275 'after one of the latter's shareholders opposed the deal'. Staff will now face a period of uncertainty as Kingfisher streamline their business and make it fit for 21st Century trading. In a separate announcement “Kevin O'Byrne, chief executive for B&Q UK & Ireland, would leave the firm on 15 May 2015 "allowing a smooth handover of his responsibilities" with further details to be announced "in due course".”

Support NEWTEK - Like what we do here at NEWTEK? If so, you should consider supporting us…Running a news based website is fun, time consuming and can be costly. If you would like to help the site keep afloat please use the donate button​